Brother Mine
by Jade Tatsu
Summary: It was a tiny change, the introduction of a child, Murakami's son to Fukamachi Sho and company. But that introduction, combined with Murakami's dying wish that there be no Chronos, changed everything. One shot fic, AU but related to Cyblade Silver's fics


Kenji belongs to Cyblade Silver and is used with permission.

Guyver unfortunately does not belong to me or else would be different... very different

This fic is something Cyblade and I discussed -years- ago, and I started it but never went anywhere yet a short while ago I found myself thinking of it and finished it. To be honest I'm not too fond of original characters and I can't really remember how this fic got started anyway. I probably wanted to kill Kenji but someone wouldn't let me :P Bad Cyblade.

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Meanings

Otoutou – little brother  
Nii-san – Elder brother  
Otou-san - Father  
I've used Japanese suffixes on names in this -san, -chan, -kun, etc because the person thinking and recording this is very formal in their manners though not always polite. Please do not tell me that at least one of the suffices is incorrect, I am aware of that, but to show contempt for the person(s) referred to, it is appropriate. And perhaps it shows how much hatred the narrator feels.

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Brother Mine  
Jade Tatsu  


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_**  
H**_istory never records the things that matter. It records the events, cold and lifeless, brittle facts that tell what happened but not what matters, not why things unfolded the way they did. Only people know why but the memories of people are short and wash away with time and it's still too soon to know if immortals are any different. So perhaps they too will only remember the events but not the passion that accompanied them, not the reasons, the ideals that were held most dear.

I remember the events and I remember why but I do not claim to know all the reasons. You'd have to ask him why and even he can't tell you everything for those that are gone took their reasons with them. I wish I knew. God above, I wish I knew but I guess I will ask them soon enough. He's not likely to let me survive for 's changed, yet everything has remained the same. It's just our sides that are different.

Everything's changed, yet everything has remained the same. It's just our sides that are different.

I remember the first time I saw him. He held his stuffed tiger tight, his eyes were wide but there were no tears and he made no sound. His father was carrying him, protecting him with his own body as Sho-sama was covering them both, pressure cannon and head beam running hot with a facility I never knew he possessed. I didn't care about him, the child, at the time. I was worried for Sho-sama since he and Murakami-san had snuck out the night before.

Of course when they explained I cared about him then. I sympathised, I understood. And despite the danger, in the few brief unguarded moments where father and son could be together, I could see that it was all worth it. Those moments made Murakami-san's sacrifice all the more poignant but all the more important because without that sacrifice those stolen moments would never have been.

He was shy at first, preferring to stay with his father or go with Sho-sama. It was to be expected. His past hadn't exactly been conducive to human interaction. Sho-sama took his clinging with good humour, stroking back his black blue hair and encouraging him to play, often taking the opportunity to play himself. Looking back, I could see the men they both would be in those moments.

Our peace was short lived though, a few days nothing more. The hiding place wasn't that good and Guyot-teme, with his prey snatched from him, had been relentless in his search. Between Murakami-san and Guyot-teme there was an eternal hatred. Murakami-san was one of Guyot-teme's test bodies but it was more than that.

I don't know the cause, I only know the way it turned out.

We ran of course, we had no choice. The Zoanoids hounded us but before X-day they had to be careful, they had to pretend they were normal. That gave us a slight advantage and we needed everything we could get. There were just a few of us then. Me, and I don't know how I got caught up in it all. Tetsuro-sama, who'd been there from the beginning. Mizuki-chan, who kept us all human. Sho-sama, who showed us all a way to fight. Murakami-san, who taught us how to fight. Kenji-kun, who showed us what the future should bring. And Aptom-san, our shadow companion, the one who was with us, yet we never knew.

There's events that happened before X-day that I only know about because I was with those who were curious about causes, who wanted to know why things had happened, those who asked questions when they could.

That's why I know Alkanphel-san had his suspicions about Guyot-teme and came himself to see his newest Zoalord. That's why I know that Guyot-teme when he finally met his master bowed to the Supreme Zoalord and made a deal that delivered something unto his Master. That something was the Remover. A device, which at that time we had no concept of, no idea such a thing was even possible. We probably should have but the impossibility of Zoanoids was enough for the moment.

And that's why I know that it was at that time that our shadow companion, a man who had surreptitiously kept us safe from random Zoanoids, was captured.

Alkanphel-san was sure of his power but he was also sure enough to take no chances and he'd summoned his Zoalords. Or perhaps it was his normal time to wake and they'd gathered at his call anyway. In this case the reasons don't matter, the results do. Aptom-san opened the way for us to retreat to the one place we never thought Chronos would look - one of their own research bases, the base known as Relics Point but in doing so, he came up against the gathered Zoalords.

He wasn't fond of them.

They were not fond of him.

As good a fighter as Aptom-san was, as tenacious and as courageous, he could not fight ten Zoalords. We didn't know that then. We only learnt that later. We just assumed, wrongly, that he didn't wish to confine himself to the base. It was something we had expected so we weren't surprised when he did not come to us in the base, rather we assumed he had decided to continue fighting in freedom. We only became concerned later when we heard no messages.

Before that though, our time in the base was one of fond memories and happy times. It's odd. We were in the centre of Chronos Japan yet we were happy.

That time gave us the strength for the future. I think it did anyway, or else we would never have been able to go on. Chronos of course were looking for us but they couldn't find us. As we had surmised they never thought to look within, never thought we'd have found the extent of their operations but it was obvious really.

There is corporate Chronos that the world was familiar with. That was human Chronos but when the Zoanoids were chasing Sho-sama and Murakami-san they always seemed to encounter them more in the mountains. And when we did our own backtracking of where the Guyver Unit had come from, it became obvious that Chronos had facilities in the wilderness. From that deduction it was merely a matter of looking. I must say though we were surprised at the full extent of their operation!

Naive as we were then, we never thought anyone could build such an extensive facility without the government knowing - even if it wasn't our government, you've have thought that one of the world's governments with their satellites would have picked something up. Especially since Relics Point was not the only secret Chronos facility in the globe.

I am forced to conclude that the world's governments did know just that the Zoanoids spread throughout them were judiciously keeping the evidence suppressed. For that, Chronos have my full respect for their ability to control the situation and information flow.

We lived in Relic's Point for a year or so. Kenji-kun grew close to his father and to the team there, though he was always with either his dad or Sho-sama. Sho-sama became his brother, not in blood but in spirit. They played, they talked, they just spent time together. It was enough for a child. I caught Sho-sama once singing Kenji-kun to sleep, holding his hand gently after having read him a story. It's a fond memory. That and of course the little play fights that occur between all family.

We worked while we were in the base. In order to hide our presence in the base we contributed to Chronos Research. Tetsuro-sama was the best of us and while he made some discoveries for Chronos what he learnt from their files was far more valuable than any tidbit of information he decided to let them know. Mizuki-chan learned how to heal though like the rest of us she also learnt the basics of fighting - self defence at least. We all had lessons, even Kenji-kun. It was necessary.

As unlikely as it would be that our human selves would have much chance against a Zoanoid, we all took those lessons, those in hand to hand fighting and those in wilderness survival because we didn't know what the future held. It was better to have that training and not need it. Besides, it's not like we had much else to do. The training didn't make us experts in anything but it did help us to order our thoughts, and prioritise our decisions and goals in the future. It's something everyone eventually learns, just we had to learn it faster and younger than most.

Amazingly we were in contact with other Rebels during that time. The bottom levels of Relic's Point were occupied with some of the most involved research for Chronos, that research that probed the beginnings and that's when we found out about the fight between Guyot-teme and Alkanphel-san and about the strange object that Shirai-teme had been researching alone. The object that Guyot-teme had bought his survival with.

Being where we were, we often researched the rumours the other Rebels heard. We were the eyes Chronos never suspected. Imagine our surprise then when those foreign Rebels told us that a high level prisoner, one that Chronos periodically moved throughout the world and kept under constant Zoalord guard, was coming to Japan.

Imagine our surprise and our grief when we found out that said prisoner was our shadow companion.

What little comfort we took in our little world shattered and even the confirmation and our subsequent leaking of the date of X-day did little to console us. We had, after all, unintentionally abandoned him to Chronos.

All the world wide Rebels knew X-day was coming. The thing that we didn't know then was when it was. Everyone knew it had to happen and naturally when we, deep in Relic's Point, found out the date, we let everyone know. It was the most closely guarded Rebel secret in that time. Chronos absolutely could not get a hint that the Rebels knew when X-day was or they would have moved it.

For our little group, we had tentatively planned to do nothing during X-day. I know that sounds defeatist but it was reasoned that we, deep as we were within Chronos would be better suited remaining in Relic's Point, remaining where we could intercept Chronos communications but with the knowledge that Aptom-san was going to be in Japan on X-day our plans changed.

X-day was going to be the single biggest military strike in the history of the planet. On that day Chronos would declare it's existence to the world and in the declaration would their guard be down. There would be so many things happening outside the confines and the micro worlds that were the Chronos bases that we reasoned security would be minimal. Aptom-san was meant to be kept under constant guard but for that one day, that Zoalord Guard would be occupied with other things. It was the only time we could see to break him out.

And that's what we planned to do.

The Rebels around the world, often scorned for their beliefs, pre-warned about X-day would put up a fight, would hold the line for a free humanity while the worlds Governments came to terms with the horror that was descending upon them. We hoped that would be enough. If it wasn't the Rebels would retreat, go where they could to carry on the fight, to carry the hope of freedom, to carry the battle on where and when they could. We'd join them after we freed Aptom-san.

Of course, nothing ever goes to plan.

The launch of X-day went smoothly for Chronos but the presence of the Rebels, of warriors not surprised by their appearance and who were armed with Zoanoid killing weapons was a shock to Chronos. Obviously they'd known that there were some Rebels, they had never suspected that there were quite as many as there were, though I suspect that at least some of those Rebels were there because they didn't understand what their commanders and their leaders knew. After X-day, those that survived knew and understood and fought with a greater passion.

X-day saw about three quarters of the world fall. And those parts that remained free appreciated their freedom all the more and fought viciously in the days that followed to protect it. In some cases they were successful. In some they weren't. The passion of those days has been forgotten and the battles both won and lost are recorded in cold numbers. They say nothing about what really happened, nothing about the depth of emotion that happened.

It says nothing about how the shock of X-day moulded humanity, gave them a unified purpose and being where none had been. Before that day countries fought with each other, religions quibbled and killed each other and humans argued over race. After X-day they realised that there was only one race, and that most religions when confronted with the devil agreed that they could fight each other after evil had been vanquished. And they realised that there was only one border and that was the border of the world. After X-day, where a mother fell, defending her child, another would step up to defend that child, or continue to carry them to freedom. There was in those days only one family and that family was humanity.

We saw that after X-day of course. For ourselves, we were busy planning Aptom-san's release. He was being held at Relic's Point and thus it was a fairly easy operation for us to ride one of the elevators to the holding cell levels and then go through security. After all, we were on the Chronos payroll. Our plan was a little more involved than that, but for all the good it did us, that is what our plan should have been.

Guyot-teme was in charge of X-day Japan and eastern Asia.

And he ran X-day from Relic's Point.

We found that out the hard way.

The appearance of the elusive Guyver I in the middle of Relic's Point was obviously going to be one of those things that triggered alarms within Chronos hierarchy. We'd just hoped with X-day, that those alarms would have been on a time delay.

Not so.

Guyot-teme obviously still wanted a Guyver, no matter what deal he had made with Alkanphel-san and the appearance of Guyver I in the middle of Relic's Point was reported to him immediately. Not only that, he abandoned the control of X-day to fight Guyver I. He'd obviously postponed his ambition, not relinquished it.

While those Zoanoids left to guard Aptom-san were no match for a Guyver, it still took some time to kill them. And it was time we didn't have.

I know, I know. We should have planned better.

We didn't.

And we paid the price.

There were shouts and smoke and confusion and no one knew where to turn or what to do. There were Zoanoids everywhere and Tetsuro-sama was supporting Aptom-san who was drugged into insensibility. The chameleonic Zoanoid was not going to be able to help us. And then Guyot-teme arrived, complete in his battle form, his eyes madly red with his ambition.

I've said before, it was more than just hate between Murakami-san and Guyot-teme and while Sho-sama wanted to fight Guyot-teme, Murakami-san took that choice away when he closed with the Zoalord. Their battle would have been bad enough in open territory, in an enclosed space it was dreadful!

Though it was that enclosed space that allowed Murakami-san to actually fight since Guyot-teme could not go full out and his larger form was hindered by confines while Murakami-san's smaller form could slip into places he couldn't follow. Not that that makes much difference to a Zoalord. They merely bull their way through any obstacle.

Guyot-teme was not sane during that battle. Anyone who saw him came to that conclusion and even some of the Zoanoids tried to flee. They couldn't of course, bound as they were to the superior Zoaform, but they tried.

Sho-sama and Tetsuro-sama just grabbed Aptom-san and ran, as per Murakami-san's wishes.

And it was then that we found out the true torture of being in Relic's Point. All Chronos bases are monitored.

We saw the entire battle.

Kenji-kun saw the entire battle.

No son should watch their father die.

Murakami-san's dying wish was for his son to be free, to never be Chronos. I can honestly say he got his wish, though he may not be too happy at the outcome.

There was no time to mourn though.

Guyot-teme knew we were in the base now and it would only be a matter of time before he found us. We had to escape. The battle though had taken out the elevators and so there was only one way to get out of the base.

We launched the Relic.

It's almost funny, the irony here. Chronos believed the Relic to be dormant, petrified and inaccessible. We'd been living in their base for two years and we knew otherwise. We'd been inside it many times, though we'd been careful to make sure Chronos never found out. We knew about the Relic, we knew how to operate it and we knew it was fully charged.

Launching it would destroy the base and would kill most if not all of the surviving base inhabitants but we had no choice. I suppose I could say 'They were Chronos' or 'They were Zoanoids' and while that's true in many cases, Relic's Point was a research base.

Most were just human.

Scientists, biologists and such, all rather forcibly recruited by Chronos. The only mercy I can say is that it was quick. I hope.

Sho-sama fused with the Relic and piloted it straight up through Relic's Point, pulling magma up behind him. We fondly hoped that being splattered on the Relic's shields would destroy Guyot-teme but naturally we weren't that lucky.

One of the reasons only three quarters of the world fell on X-day is because we launched the Relic. I get a certain grim satisfaction thinking about how Chronos must have struggled to prioritise that day.

X-day or the past – which would they protect?

Our luck was running as usual because the decision was the past.

Every Zoalord was called to Relic's Point. That gave the worlds Rebels some breathing room and left us drowning.

Alkanphel-san came, that device Shirai-teme had been researching on his arm. We still had no idea what it was for. Guyot-teme obviously did because he wasn't surprised to the see Supreme Zoalord with it and the others were.

The Relic was an Advent ship. One that had lain dormant for centuries until we woke it up. It was fully charged. And it was armed. We'd discovered that it could fly on auto-pilot, but it couldn't fight. So Sho-sama was locked into the command beam, merged with the ship.

We hadn't formed a plan when we launched it. The plan then had simply been to run and the plan when the Zoalords were spotted was still to run. We weren't fools, we knew what we were capable of and fighting Zoalords was beyond our ability.

It's very difficult to run, though, when there are eleven Zoalords engaged in a game of cat and mouse... when you are the mouse.

It turned out we had no choice but to fight.

Guyot-teme was out of it still, his body wounded but clear of the magma. Murakami-san's body had been pulled clear too. Not that it helped much to know he was gone but perhaps we could give him a proper burial, a proper good bye and maybe that would give Kenji-kun some peace. Of course to do that we had to escape and that was proving difficult.

Chronos knew what dying for a cause meant. Their Zoanoids had no choice when ordered. What they really didn't understand was voluntarily dying for a cause. And what they really hated was those who voluntarily died to land a blow against them. Those who died for the success of their mission or to save their loved ones.

I have known some of the greatest Rebels against Chronos, some of the strongest fighters and most brilliant tacticians. I've lived with the rank and file, gone out to the line and fought with gun and knife beside them and I've told them all that to win, they have to be prepared to die, that the cause is what is important. I've told them all that they should not be looking for reasons or places to die but that, if the time comes and the place demands it, then they should not hesitate and they should be at peace. I've looked into the eyes of some of the greatest Rebels and I've seen their fear.

Sho-sama had no fear.

He knew that his time and his place had come. He knew that our cause was worth it.

I know what he did but I do not know how he did it. Somehow, he trapped us all in a protective bubble within the Advent Ship and then he turned towards where the Zoalords were clustered and rammed the ship into them.

The noise was incredible. I think I was deaf for a week afterwards. The heat was also intense but the bubble worked. It both cushioned and insulated us against the shock and the flames of the ship's destruction and the subsequent fall. I think we bounced. I really don't know.

All I really know is that we woke up covered in some sort of bio-material in the middle of the forest, a bit bruised perhaps and certainly with ringing ears from the explosion but apart from that, no too bad.

Physically we were fine.

Emotionally was another matter.

Kenji-kun cried for a solid month. His father and his brother were both dead in the same battle.

Mizuki-chan and Tetsuro-sama were both a bit more restrained but it was obvious they were also in deep mourning. Aptom-san appeared angry. Once he healed from his wounds he snarled and left us. In reality he stayed of course, but he remained apart. The scientists who'd fled with us scattered to join the Rebel armies. Their talents did not lie in comforting children and teenagers after all, and really they were better off there.

Hayami-san stayed with us but he dealt with Aptom-san mostly.

And for a little while we hid.

We heard from the Rebels of course and that brought us some surprising news. There were three Guyver Units. Sho-sama got one, Lisker-teme had another and we'd seen the third one, all black and spiky, we had just never known who was beneath that armor.

That man now lead one of the more successful Rebel groups – Zeus' Thunderbolt. They were successful because of two things, the presence of the third Guyver and they had their own Zoalord. Well a Zoalady, I should call her I guess. As far as I know, they were the first group to fight back, Zoanoid to Zoanoid.

The idea, naturally enough, caught on with the other groups but to limited success. Since the other groups didn't have a Zoalord they didn't really have enough control over the Zoanoids they created and since Chronos had always frowned on the creation of Lost Numbers, there wasn't much information on what you needed to do to create a Zoanoid that was a Lost Number equivalent.

We could do that now, of course. As time went on, the researchers figured it out and eventually all the Rebel groups could fight Zoanoid to Zoanoid with the only difference between them being design and the lack of ability to co-ordinate an attack using a Zoalords mental presence. It might sound like a rather trivial difference. It's not.

Most of the Rebel Groups during the early time, took their cues from Zeus' Thunderbolt, despite the fact that no one knew who the leader was. Success was his qualification and that was enough.

After a year or so of mourning we formed our own group. You can only cry for so long.

Kenji-kun was about thirteen by then. That might seem young but if you could hold a gun, you could hold the line. While humanity had become one family, the down side of that was that pretty much anyone who was willing to fight was allowed to. Age didn't matter.

Our group was just ourselves, but I like to think we made a difference. We could have followed in the footsteps of Zeus' Thunderbolts and made ourselves Zoanoids and with Tetsuro-sama and Hayami-san working on our designs, I am positive we would have been dangerous and more effective, especially if we added in some of Aptom-san's abilities. But there are some lines we weren't prepared to cross. That was one of them.

We did however, give ourselves one or two minor adjustments. Mizuki-chan was reluctant at first, but eventually she came around. Those of us who weren't already Zoanoids let ourselves be immersed in a processing tank for about half an hour. In that time, Tetsuro-sama and Hayami-san fixed our DNA so that should Chronos capture us, if they tried to process us into Zoanoids to force us to talk, if we didn't die in processing, we'd become lost numbers with some rather powerful abilities, abilities which would rival a Zoalord. I really don't want to dwell on that too long. We made one small adjustment for Kenji-kun. Call it weakness if you want and I suppose it was. We fixed Kenji-kun so that he'd become a Lost Number. Chronos would be able to process him. If he wanted to die, that would have to come another way.

After that was done, we went out to cause havoc and to discover the state of the world.

With the havoc we'd caused on X-day our names and faces were known to the Rebel communities, though we tried not to draw too heavily on that fame but we did use it to gather as much information as we could.

Chronos controlled most of the world and those places they controlled absolutely were rather peaceful. Socio-economic boundaries had been removed as had most disease and hunger. Call them what you will, Chronos did have a plan for all humanity and the enforced peace they represented was accepted by most as the price for the miracles they gave. In those places where the Rebels were strong, that was a different matter. Open pitched battles were rare since the Rebel's were still mostly human and they couldn't really fight Zoanoids that well. But hit and run and guerilla warfare, now that was what the Rebels did.

Still in that chaotic environment we made a name for ourselves such that Tetsuro-sama wasn't often on the line. He wasn't really suited for that anyway and he and Hayami-san used their skills to design simple yet effective Zoanoids. Chronos Zoanoids are strong. In most cases they were mass produced using designs that had been tried and tested and tweaked for the maximum efficiency but to create a Chronos Zoanoid you needed to process the human for relatively long time. The Rebel scientists didn't have that luxury. Time. They had to create Zoanoid forms that could be mass produced quickly.

Chronos took anything from two to six months to make a Zoanoid. The Rebels designs took two weeks, at the most. Of course Chronos could make Zoanoids a lot faster, down to even 24 hours processing but we all knew what that did and now that they were trying to show the world that Zoanoid processing was natural, they obviously took the time to ensure that most survived it. There were a few fatalities in processing, there always had been some humans who were just innately unsuited for it, but everything was being done to keep them to a minimum.

That helped us hold the line, helped us hold enough of the earth free that the will to fight Chronos remained strong and the means remained viable. I don't know if it would have been enough longer term but for now it was because in the end, it was other things that tipped the balance.

There is one thing you never expect out of Chronos – discontent. It's there, though. It's there with far more viciousness than other companies have. With their troops being bound to obey there is only two ways to have freedom – die or succeed and most Zoanoids will do anything to succeed, including, where appropriate selling out their own. Never for money or anything like that. But if the order came slightly too late to send relief troops and thus one team of Hyper Zoanoids lost a target, while another succeeded, praise went to the success while derision and usually a far more dangerous job went to the losers. It was those little things that marked competition within Chronos. The Zoalords knew it was going on; the Zoalords didn't care so long as certain outcomes happened. At it wasn't like the Zoanoids, no matter how powerful could go against the Zoalords, so I think they found it somewhat amusing watching the power plays amongst their underlings.

They stopped being amused when the power play is on their level. With Zoanoids genetically bound to obey Zoalords, no one ever really thought that Zoalords would go up against their own. They did though and part of the irony of the situation is not lost upon me.

When you start a rebellion the last people you want finding out about it are the leaders of the opposition. In this case I can't really say if Chronos knew about the Rogue Zoalords or if they were just very fast to react. I suspect it was a bit of both. Though Alkanphel-san never feared betrayal for he was stronger than them all, the rest were not so naïve and they knew that Guyot-teme had tried something so they were aware that the possibility existed for Zoalords to try to upset the balance. Hence I rather imagine that while Chronos High Command didn't know that something was planned, they knew that something could be planned and so the response was automatic, and swift. It's that or Alkanphel-san was going to replace Guyot-teme, which is probably what I would have done given his knowledge and his desires. After all, you can watch a man but he's always watching you, waiting for you to blink and sooner or later, Alkanphel-san would have blinked.

The irony of the situation is what happened next and the fact that our little rebel cell knew about the sedition within Chronos far before their High Command did.

I've stated previously, we did our bit as Rebels. We were effective yet most likely nowhere near as effective as we could have been if we'd allowed ourselves to be transformed fully into Zoanoids. But we had things the other Rebel groups didn't, we knew how Chronos worked, which made us effective as a small unit against them. The thing is though; I didn't think we were that effective. Compared to the groups like Zeus' Thunderbolt who took out whole processing facilities in their strikes, our little acts were nothing more than a fly buzzing around. Apparently we were more dangerous than I thought or perhaps they thought we had the potential to be more dangerous than we were because when the mutiny within Chronos started, lead by three Rogue Zoalords, our little Rebel Cell was targeted specifically for elimination.

Of course, it might just be because we were accompanied by the original Aptom-san.

The Rogue Zoalords had two targets before they swung into a full attack against Chronos. I am very happy to say that they succeeded absolutely in removing their first target.

Guyot-teme.

Every Zoalord knew Guyot-teme had tried something before X-day, and they knew that Alkanphel-san had stopped him, forcing him into submission. They didn't know what he'd tried though so they didn't know if whatever it was could be used against them. And the information about that incident was known only to a few, most of whom were dead. Any records Chronos had were sealed, even for Zoalords. The Rogue Zoalords were a pragmatic lot and anything that could be a threat was to be removed hence their strike against Guyot-teme, before their strike against us.

Well...

They weren't really after us. Just Aptom-san.

What we didn't know then was that the three Rogue Zoalords had been very interested in Aptom-san during his incarceration. While Balcus-teme had done some tests and experiments, he'd been content that Aptom-san was contained and he'd been too busy preparing for X-day to really be able to experiment as much as he liked. The three Rogues, though, hadn't been as restrained and had seen Aptom-san's abilities and had wanted them. They'd taken tissue samples, and had run their experiments after X-day on them. We didn't know it then but we found out over the next day or so that the Rogues' Zoanoids had all been given some of Aptom-san's DNA.

Not all of it, because that would have just made them into copies of him. But some specific parts of Aptom-san's DNA had been isolated and stabilised and merged into existing and new Zoanoid designs and into the Rogue Zoalords.

It's commonly believed that Aptom-san does not have any telepathic abilities like other Zoanoids. That is incorrect. He does, just that they are tuned very specifically to himself and thus to boost his signal so that others can hear, he needs to wear a device. That is what the Rogues were interested in. Their Zoanoids could telepathically talk and be controlled by them, but their telepathic signal had been altered just enough that they could not be controlled by the other Zoalords.

Which was why they were after the original.

They weren't sure if Aptom-san could control their Zoanoids or if they'd isolated his DNA enough to block his call.

And that's where the irony shows. They attacked a group fighting Chronos so that they would feel safe enough to launch their own attack on Chronos. If they'd have sent us a polite note we would have helped them. Well... maybe not. We'd have thought the polite note was a trap but if they'd have gone about their insurrection in another way, it is entirely possible they'd have had the Rebels or at least some of them willing to help.

I don't think we would have though which is maybe why they never bothered to ask. I think it more likely they never even thought about other ways or the possibility of allies. The Rogues, for all they were attacking Chronos, were still Zoalords. And Zoalords were designed to dominate, not to negotiate.

They attacked us as they sent their furthermost troops into battle against Chronos – simultaneous strikes, coming fast off the defeat of Guyot-teme. Their territories were Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa, so they'd taken Guyot-teme's Japan before their strike. Asia struck downwards towards Oceania, while the Middle East struck Russia and some of Europe. Northern Africa mostly struck into Europe. It seems odd that they didn't strike south into Southern Africa but they didn't. The Zoalord in charge of that area had his Zoanoids line the border and do nothing else.

With so many battles raging, it's almost impossible to believe that Chronos didn't fall that day.

But that day saw two new players enter the game.

At the time we didn't care about the rest of the world. We were too busy fighting off Zoanoids. Aptom-san couldn't control them but he could talk to them so it was probably wise that the Rogues had attempted to take him out. He tricked a few into range and took them over completely and that's why we weren't overwhelmed immediately. Zoanoids fighting Aptom-san are only effective if they are range types. Sending in close combat Zoanoids is like sending in lunch.

Eventually the Hyper Zoanoids leading the Rogue Zoanoids twigged to that and pulled back. We had by then holed up in a basement which yes, meant that they could collapse in on us but we could also dig our way out. There really is no good place to hole up against Zoanoids so we took what we could. It also gave Mizuki-chan a chance and a place to work on our injuries.

We were scared, but we were determined and that determination rose as the news from the rest of the world filtered in.

The fight had been taken to Chronos and Chronos were not equal to the battle.

Our determination maybe helped us take out another two or three Zoanoids but in the end meant nothing. Their numbers were simply too great and even once Aptom-san worked his way through the isolation on his DNA in the Zoanoids we discovered that the Rogue Zoalords weren't completely stupid. They'd only sent a token of their altered forces against us, enough to give us hope that Aptom-san could take them all over. The rest, the bulk of them were Guyot-teme's former Zoanoids. Aptom-san could take them over, but he'd have to touch them all. And they weren't coming anywhere near him.

And that's when the first new player made his entrance.

When you are on the brink of death, when you know that it is inevitable in the next few moments, you strip yourself down to the core. All the little petty, insignificant worries become just that and those things that you will hold on to with your soul come at you with stark clarity. I know for some there was a certain sense of joy at the prospect of death because for them it would be a reunion. No, they weren't depressed and they weren't seeking to die, just that because it was inevitable, they were accepting that it had come at last and that those things holding them here, were not as strong as those things now calling, those who would soon be welcoming them.

Mizuki-chan had the softest, sweetest smile on her face as she whispered one name in her final prayer.

Aptom-san looked angry, and his eyes showed he would not die without a further battle. He probably would survive; latched on to some Zoanoid until he could win free but I wasn't sure he would want to survive.

Kenji-kun was grimly holding his pistol, waiting to shoot, though I could see in his eyes both fear and anticipation. His father and brother would greet him.

Hayami-san was fuelling his ice barrier; it would fall only when he did but I could see he was frustrated that we could not do more, but proud that we had done as much as we had.

Tetsuro-sama was working. Even at the last he was trying to help the Rebels by giving them as much information as he could.

For me, while I would be reunited with those who had gone before, I was at peace for I would die with the one I loved. If they could not live on, at least we would go together.

The new player had other ideas.

Have you ever watched dominos fall? Not one at a time, but those laid out to be intricate patterns, where once the keystone falls, hundreds follow in turn and without possibility to remain standing. That's almost what it was like watching the new comer butcher Zoanoids. One moment they were standing, and we were surrounded, the next there was only quickly evaporating chunks of Zoanoid. The Hyper-Zoanoids didn't even make the dominos pause.

And as quickly as that, we'd gone from being surrounded by hundreds of Zoanoids, to being surrounded by one being. It was only one being, with a sense of presence that was almost overwhelming but it was a sense of presence that was tinged with relief. We were wary, Chronos wouldn't be above sacrificing this many Zoanoids to get to us, but our caution was soon replaced with disbelief as the armor peeled back to reveal Sho-sama.

Mizuki-chan caught him as he fell, and Kenji-kun caught them both when they overbalanced. I don't know which was happier at the resurrection.

No matter how happy we were, we were still Rebels in hostile territory and our survival instincts kicked in quickly. Sho-sama was barely conscious so we had to run and hide and bury ourselves in deep until he recovered. We were doing just that, running, when the paragon that is our luck struck true.

The Rogues themselves attacked us.

The only warning we had was the foot wide hole that appeared in Hayami-san's chest.

Instinct took over then and we scattered, Tetsuro-sama dragging Sho-sama with him. Sho-sama struggled a bit. He was barely conscious but he knew there was threat and he was determined to fight them, no matter his condition. Kenji-kun calmed him though as we ran and dodged and tried to escape. There was a moment, just an instant when I was thankful that the Rogues had not struck Aptom-san first... it was a moment that died quickly.

They'd taken out Hayami-san first because he was the one who could fight them.

They'd taken over Aptom-san so that now he was against us. He was fighting it of course, but against three Zoalords who had studied his DNA, who had the opportunity to implant a device within him while he was in custody, the battle was not going well.

I don't know who to thank that we all survived long enough for the second new comer to make themselves known.

While we'd been running for our lives, Chronos has been fighting back against the rebellion within their ranks. And they had been fighting back with brutal efficiency.

Apparently they were equal to the struggle.

A thirteenth Zoalord appeared. White and purple and insanely strong. His mental presence cut through the Aptom-san DNA the Rogue's Zoanoids has been given and their rebellion ended. It had though, taken the new Zoalord time to deal with the countries and regions and then he'd come looking for the instigators.

He entered the scene with full drama, taking out Cablarl Khan with his human form, before turning, transforming as he did so to confront the other two. We didn't see his face then.

With Cablarl Khan dead, Aptom-san regained control of himself but the long day of combat had left him depleted.

We were very close to lost.

Sho-sama struggled to rise and managed to summon his Unit but he couldn't manifest the power he had displayed earlier. He too was exhausted.

And so we watched. Neither side was about to let us run and we weren't equal to the battle.

It is nerve racking you know, to merely observe. It might have been easier if they were fighting but they weren't. The Zoalords just stood there. There were things passing between them that I could never understand despite the fact that they barely moved.

Eventually they must have reached an agreement and it was with a very sick feeling that we watched as the two surviving Rogue Zoalords took the body of their companion and withdrew.

That left our exhausted group to try to fight the new Zoalord. He remained in midair for quite some time, his back to us. None of us even thought to snipe at him. It wouldn't have done any good even if we had. We knew that.

Eventually he lowered himself to the ground, his back still to us. We waited. There was nothing else we could do but wait for the new Zoalord to make his move.

"I had hoped this day would never come."

Those were the words he spoke.

Those were the words that shattered everything. Two voices cried out in anguish.

"Murakami-san!"

"Father!"

What happened next decided everything.

The Zoalord turned becoming human and his golden cat eyes met ours.

There was no doubt as to his identity then, nothing we could say to deny it.

Blood runs thicker than water, it seems. Or perhaps it was Kenji-kun's way of trying to let us escape.

He dodged around Sho-sama and Aptom-san and ran straight to his father, embracing the newest Zoalord around his waist with a happy smile.

It seemed to be what Murakami-san was waiting for, though, or he accepted the capture of his son in place of our demise, because he returned his son's embrace and rose quickly, a protective gravity field forming around them. It wasn't necessary. Despite desire we were in no shape to fight. Murakami-san looked back once as he disappeared with his son, in response to Sho-sama's call to Kenji-kun.

"Otoutou, remember your Otou-san's wish. I will see it realised. Kenji-kun, we will come for you."

And with that, we were left in the middle of the battlefield, exhausted, confused, but alive.

Why am I surrounded by those who are so noble?

Murakami-san had sacrificed himself for us to escape.

Sho-sama had sacrificed himself for us to escape.

Both had returned, but it appeared Kenji-kun in his joy at their resurrection had forgotten our grief. Did he not realise that we all would have preferred to fight and die than to see another sacrificed for us? I cannot bring myself to call him selfish, because I have to believe he did what he thought was best and his actions most likely saved us, but it was a sacrifice we didn't want to make.

We would have fought that day to keep him.

We would most likely have lost but we would have fought.

You can say what you want about honouring someone's choice but the plain truth is the grief would have been easier to bear knowing that we had at least made the attempt to fight. On top of our grief at losing Hayami-san, it was almost overwhelming. This isn't to say we weren't jubilant at Sho-sama's return, just that the joy in that was significantly reduced by knowing that Kenji-kun was with them and that Murakami-san was somehow, twistedly, alive still.

I don't know how long we remained on the battle field but in the end we did the only thing we could. We moved on.

The next few days were confusing.

Obviously Chronos couldn't hide the fact that three of their Zoalords had rebelled, and had taken out a fourth. They managed the spin well though, introducing Murakami as Imakarum-san, Alkanphel-san's Hand and crediting him with putting down the rebellion but sadly being unable to save Guyot-teme. Which is almost true. I can't help but think that Alkanphel-san was relieved that Guyot-teme was gone, though he was probably upset that he didn't get the body. Of the actual Rebellion, those who had been fighting openly from X-day, not much was said. They'd taken some advantage of the Rogue's actions but they hadn't had much opportunity to exploit the confusion. They'd done some things, but most of the gains had been returned to Chronos when Imakarum-san had retaken control of the Zoanoids.

Chronos said relatively little about the two surviving Rogue Zoalords. There was a brief statement that they were considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached but instead their presence should be reported to the authorities who would then deal with it but beyond that nothing was said. It was almost as if Chronos was waiting for the next move.

When we got back into regular contact with the Rebel forces though, no one knew what they were waiting for but everyone was building up, shoring up their positions, getting ready for the battle they knew Chronos now had to carry to them with renewed force or else be shown to be weak.

Chronos, though, was right to wait.

Zeus' Thunderbolt launched a major offensive against Chronos Head Quarters, America. Their opening blow took out one of the sky towers that formed the building. The design held though so we don't know if the desire was to make it collapse or just to be dramatic. The Thunderbolts were sometimes like that but such dramatics made sure the world could not ignore them.

And that's when we saw it.

The whole world saw it.

Sho-sama had returned to us with a changed Guyver Unit. It appeared the leader of Zeus' Thunderbolt had undergone a similar transformation. Of course I know now that that wasn't the case but I still got a shiver down the spine looking at that massive black Guyver as it causally obliterated whole sections of Chronos American Head Quarters.

Imakarum-san responded quickly and the world was treated to a view of how much destruction a Zoalord fighting at full power could achieve.

The Gigantic Black Guyver Three took out about half of the Chronos Head Quarters. Imakarum-san took out the other half. The world had to come to terms with the levels of destruction individuals were now capable of. They knew Zoanoids of course and had seen what they were capable of and were adjusting. And for the most part Chronos had been careful to make sure any collateral damage caused by Zoanoids was fixed and the Zoanoid punished publicly. There was no such thing as a drunken rampage by a Zoanoid. Their PR was very good like that.

That's probably why the Thunderbolts staged the battle as they did. The damage to the Head Quarters was bad, the damage to their public image was probably worse.

The battle ended in a draw. But it was a draw that showed the world Chronos could be opposed.

After that there were little Rebel cells popping up everywhere and being rather efficiently and viciously quashed again. Chronos' image, which they'd worked on in the aftermath of X-day was quickly reverting back to one of brutal tyrants hell bent on conquest. Those good things they did for the world, and they did do good things, were forgotten as people strove for freedom again. It's almost as if they woke up. The peace of Chronos had lulled them to sleep, the comforts, the lack of struggle, but it had taken from many their will.

It was good to see that it was possible to wake up the world. Good to see that the desire for freedom had not yet been forgotten.

It was horrible to see the slaughter.

It is one thing to fight and to die in a planned battle, as part of a team working towards a goal. It is another to fight and die with no plan, no goal.

Many of those who woke up and fought Chronos would have been better waking up and thinking how they could best fight. They didn't, so they died. There seemed no end the capacity for human stupidity.

The Thunderbolts and the other established Rebels though benefited from this time. They got a lot of recruits and as the battle was joined more and more Chronos was pushed back. Imakarum-san was unbeatable and it was he who was there always at the times and places where Chronos seemed most vulnerable. Guyver Three and he did not fight again, though I could almost feel the world holding its breath in anticipation of such a battle. Chronos didn't target us either. In fact, Chronos did not seem concerned by the beating they were taking. Almost every day they lost ground but there was no sense of panic, no sense of defeat.

It was surprising and confusing but there it was. We encountered them of course. We still ran our little battles; we still fought as we could, though we were always looking for Kenji-kun. But in-so-far as I am able to tell, Chronos response to us was nothing special. Their reaction to the other rebels and to the Thunderbolts was nothing out of the ordinary either. They lost materials and Zoanoids but they never stepped up the war. They treated everything as if it was normal.

It's almost insulting in its own way. Were we that insignificant? Was the other Guyver Unit that obsolete now by the presence of the Gigantic? Was a Zoaform capable of taking over almost infinite others of no consequence?

Or was a small hand holding back their might? Was a small hand shielding us as best he could?

It's academic now and I only mention it because it was something we were aware of. If anything it made our determination to rescue Kenji-kun that much stronger.

It was during this time though, that strangely peaceful time for us when things went right, while the world fought around us, that we received a very cryptic message.

"Time is up. Be at the beginning, or it is the end. -1+3R."

You've seen children playing with those little cryptic puzzles? They take up their entire attention as they try out every different possibility seeking to find the solution. We resembled that with the message. We twisted it, we turned it, we examined the paper it had come scrawled on minutely and we thought and discussed almost every different possibility for meaning of every word in there.

"Time is up." Time on what was up?

"Be at the beginning." The beginning of what? Where was the beginning?

"Or it is the end." The end of what?

"-1+3R." The mysterious sender.

Most Rebels probably would have ignored the message. We weren't most Rebels. Something was telling us that this message was important. Call that something instinct, gut feeling, intuition, whatever, it doesn't matter. For all of us, it was unspoken but it was there. No one made a move to ignore the message.

In the end, we took it to mean that our time as free Rebels was up, and this was an invitation from one of the other bigger Rebel groups to join them. That made determining the beginning interesting and it's actually only because we used Aptom-san's abilities to be in many places at once that we discovered that our reading of the message was completely wrong and the beginning we'd assumed was not at all what was meant.

If Aptom-san hadn't of been so angry, he might have seen and felt amusement at the dawning comprehension we all felt after he'd relaying what his clones were seeing to us. The message became very clear when Aptom-san told us that two of the Rogue Zoalords were in the vicinity of our High School.

"Time is up." Their time was up.

"Be at the beginning." Be at the place that was the beginning of our knowledge of Chronos for most of us, our high school, where Sho-sama had fought the Hyper Zoanoid Team Five and the rest of us had seen Zoanoids for the first time, no matter what we had believed them to be then.

"Or it is the end." That bit still remained unclear.

"-1+3R." No one claimed Zoalords had facility with algebra. But as a sign off three rogues that had become two, it was sufficient, once we knew who sent it.

We went to meet them.

And in meeting them we discovered that our reading of their message was still incorrect.

Their time was not up. Ours was. But nor was it our time as independent Rebels.

Every Rebel's time was up.

That's what they believed, and that's what they brought proof of.

Chronos wasn't worried about the losses they were taking because they were not at full power. But the time was coming when they would be, and if the battle had not been won by then, there would be no way to win it.

Alkanphel-san was the supreme Zoalord. That was well known on all levels of Chronos, and now the world. What was not generally known was that Alkanphel-san was the only reason life still existed on our planet. He had defied his creators and used all his power to destroy the asteroid they'd sent to wipe out the danger represented by a Guyver Unit on a human host. That singular act, lost to the knowledge of the world had damaged him though and it was damage only his creators could fix. Obviously they weren't interested in healing him. It's a wonder they didn't send a second asteroid since they had to know that the first one didn't succeed, but perhaps they were too intent upon their war. Perhaps they reconsidered. The reasons may be important but are unknown to us. What happened is important and is all we know for sure.

In the time since saving the planet, Alkanphel-san had spent his time hibernating, awakening infrequently to monitor life on the world he'd saved. More recently he'd awoken to direct Chronos, overseeing the creation of some of the Zoalords and the X-day plan which all fed into his final plan. At the time of his wounding, only his creators could heal him, because they possessed a level of technology and of biological understanding that was godlike to the primitive man they had created. Given enough time though, given enough development, humans evolve and adapt and learn.

We'd seen hints of it before, the Rogues confirmed it. Chronos existed for one reason; to advocate and develop human biotechnology for the purpose of healing Alkanphel-san. That is why even during X-day, they had protected the past. That is why they spent so long developing Zoanoids and other bioweapons. Anything that lead to a greater understanding of biotechnology was encouraged and funded because it was all knowledge that could be used to develop the method to heal Alkanphel-san.

X-day had not occurred because they wanted to control the world. X-day had been planned to occur at the time when Chronos had exhausted the possibilities of secret research. It had been planned so that the entire world could then participate and that all ideas could be openly explored. After X-day Chronos no longer had to recruit in secret, no longer had to kidnap those they wanted, those who showed talent. After X-day scientists actually flocked to them for the chance to work at the cutting edge of biotechnology and genetic engineering.

And in the time since X-day, the expanse of knowledge had grown exponentially. The creators were no longer the only ones who could heal Alkanphel-san.

Their creations now possessed that knowledge.

Once Alkanphel-san was healed and at full power, his mind would reach out to touch all Zoanoids. There would be no more missed commands. There would be no more hesitation in battle. There would be no more bribing of individual Zoanoids, or taking out the sentinels to gain access to the bases because their loss would be felt by all Zoanoids and they would act accordingly. It would not be as invasive as a hive mind but it would have the effect.

It would mean the end of Rebellion.

The Rogues were not telling us this to be vindictive, or out of any sense of comradery through insurrection. They were telling us this for their own self interest. If nothing was done they would see the Rebels destroyed, an estimated two months before they were hunted down themselves. That admission made us believe them all the more. They had come to us with their little cryptic note, so that we could tell the other Rebels, so that we could draw everyone together to fight before the end.

The Rogues didn't like it but they had no choice. They explained that they could only see two options. The first was for the Gigantic Guyver Three to fight and kill Alkanphel-san before he was healed. That wasn't going to happen though since the Gigantic was not able to defeat Imakarum-san and since it could not defeat that Zoalord, the leader of Zeus' Thunderbolt could not hope to defeat Alkanphel-san. They did not believe Sho-sama could defeat Alkanphel-san or Imakarum-san either, no matter how powerful he had become. That left the second option and in that they had no choice but to help us absolutely.

They each laid one crystal upon a desk.

Tetsuro-sama was the first to recognise them for what they were and therefore what the Rogues were both offering and asking. What plan they considered to be necessary. He asked them just one question. "Who?"

"Aptom."

"We need to confer."

And we did. We withdrew slightly and Tetsuro-sama explained in that concise and matter of fact manner that he had. "They do not believe we can fight Zoanoid to Zoanoid any further. It must be Zoalord to Zoalord. And that's what they are offering. Aptom-san, they want you to take point."

The chameleonic hyper Zoanoid looked pleased for a moment, a vicious vindictive smirk on his features before he became serious again. "We can't do this alone."

We couldn't. This was something that required all the Rebel groups to work together on. It was something we only had one chance at, to take out Alkanphel-san before he was healed, and thus it concerned everyone. That's why the Rogues had come to us. We knew the other Rebels. We knew how to contact them, we knew how to present the information such that it would be believed, and we could act as intermediaries between the Rogue Zoalords and the Rebels.

Getting the Rebels together was fairly easy. Deciding on a course of action was hard. To say the Rebels were surprised at Chronos' reasoning would be an understatement but the surprise didn't last long before it turned into anger, against Chronos and against Alkanphel-san himself. After all, it did make Alkanphel-san seem very selfish and while I'm sure there was more to the plan and the existence of Chronos, those plans would not come to the fore until Alkanphel-san was healed. So for the next few months, our little group of Rebels carried messages between the different groups and made plans. And all through it all, we still did not find out who the leader of the Thunderbolts was.

Originally when the battle against Chronos was desperate, that lack of knowledge hadn't been a problem. It was becoming such now as more and more Rebels got entrenched in the fight. They were no longer content to follow a man they knew nothing about and who knew quite a bit about Chronos. Our groups knowledge was explainable and how we knew about Chronos was almost common knowledge amongst the Rebels. That information was a part of what gave us our credentials. That and we were one of the few, if not the only groups to operate in Japan, a place that was considered a Chronos stronghold. That raised our status a bit more. In the Americas, Australia, Africa and Europe there is more land, so there is more places to hide. Japan was small and surviving there as Rebels meant being excellent at hiding. Perhaps it's not a skill or a distinction we should be proud of, but it was a distinction that allowed us to pull together the groups to oppose Chronos.

Most of them, after having the situation explained agreed to fight and agreed to work together to make a viable plan. The Thunderbolts did not. Instead they made demands.

The Rebellion was almost lost by them there but Tetsuro-sama displayed his patience and his negotiation skills and worked out acceptable compromises. I'm only thankful that the Rogues had come forward when they did. We had the time to negotiate while Alkanphel-san made sure the procedure to heal him was safe. Maybe things would have been better if we didn't have that time, maybe having Chronos breathing down our necks at full power would have stopped some of the petty infighting. But while we had the time, we spent it negotiating and planning. We'd only get one chance to take out Alkanphel-san.

In those months, Aptom-san was being processed. One of the Zoalord Crystals that the Rogues had provided was fused into him and the best minds of the Rebellion and the Rogue Zoalords conferred on Aptom-san's final design and abilities. I don't know fully what they did but the design thought was make him overwhelming and then make him even more powerful. It was a gamble to give him that much power but no one else had the abilities. While he was being processed, around the world the Rebels were kidnapping as many Zoanoids as they could, infecting them with just a small controlled bit of Aptom-san's DNA and then releasing them. Those Zoanoids would heed Aptom-san's call, not Alkanphel-san's. And that's why Aptom-san had been chosen to be the one to face Alkanphel-san. He may have been an accident created by Balcus-teme but he was the only one who could do that.

One of the reasons it took so long for the Rebels to agree on a plan was the disposition of the second Zoalord Crystal. Zeus' Thunderbolt demanded that it be turned over to them. That was something that was denied by both the Rogues and other Rebels. We needed to make another Zoalord, that much was determined by the line up, the question was who though.

That line up...

So much was determined by our projected battle plan and who would fight who. That's why even though people didn't like dealing with the mysterious leader of Zeus' Thunderbolts, we persisted. We needed them. The line up needed them because the rest of us just didn't have the power to take on the remaining Chronos Zoalords without their assistance.

There were nine Zoalords remaining in Chronos, including Alkanphel-san. Without the Thunderbolts we could possibly fight five of them, and fighting five of them, when one was Alkanphel-san was suicide. With the two key warriors of the Thunderbolts, namely their leader and their Zoalady, we could take on seven of the remaining Chronos Lords. The Rogues indicated that the Zoalord in control of southern Africa, Sin Rubeo Amniculus, would only fight if challenged directly which was why they hadn't attacked in that direction during their insurrection. And the last Zoalord, Balcus-teme was not predominantly a combat type. It was possible that a contingent of human fighters or Aptom clones, with the right motivation would be able to take him out. We hoped. But our plans required the Thunderbolts' cooperation.

Aptom-san would fight Alkanphel-san.

Imakarum-san would line up against the leader of the Thunderbolts – Gigantic Guyver Three.

The Thunderbolts Zoalady, Griselda would face one of the other Zoalords, as would each of the Rogues. Sho-sama would also have to fight one of the Zoalords. Whoever was created to be the final Zoalord would fight another. And we'd have to hope for the best against Balcus-teme. Sin Rubeo Amniculus would not be a problem and we'd negotiate with him after Chronos was defeated. After all, if we lost it didn't matter.

The creation of that final Zoalord though caused issues. The Thunderbolts wanted the crystal for their Zoalady, to give her a boost because as they explained she was only a Proto-lord, a very powerful, very stable one but not a full Zoalord. Their request was denied as we needed the numbers. After the battle was won, then we could work to stablise her form and thus give her back her missing life expectancy. In the end the solution as hardly elegant but it was the only one we could see. Each Rebel group put forward the name of their best fighter who was willing to become a Zoalord and a random selection was made. It didn't matter who it was really, just so long as they did their job.

That completed our line up, our seven against Chronos' remaining nine.

Except of course we'd counted wrong. Chronos didn't have nine remaining Lords.

They had ten.

But that was, naturally, something we didn't find out until it was too late.

I'm not a warrior, I was not on the line for the final battle. Aptom-san and Sho-sama obviously were though. Mizuki-chan was present too. Well, she was with the medical teams, not with the warriors. Tetsuro-sama and I were both in the control room. It was rather satisfying actually, the recognition we got. Our Rebel group was by now well known. We might have only been five people but we were providing two of the key warriors and we had been the team that had drawn all the Rebels together for the final battle. It was a heady recognition and a heavy responsibility. No matter how much everyone agreed there was no other choice, it was our hands that had brought us to this point. I hadn't realised how heavily it had weighed upon us until that day.

The battle began as a simultaneous worldwide strike. It was very reminiscent of X-day in that respect. The main difference lay in the island Silha. Our forces were scattered throughout the world to fight their Zoalords but everything we could spare was at Silha. Maybe it would have been better to fight at Silha and then fight the others but that would have been pointless. The Zoalords would have just dug in and would have killed thousands if not millions more. It pains me to admit though, it was not about the numbers, we would have allowed that if it was something that would have granted victory. If we didn't take out the Zoalords though, or at least distract them while we fought Alkanphel-san, he could have called upon their powers, their strength and that would have been our defeat. And if we tried ganging up and taking out the Zoalords one by one, then that would have just given Alkanphel-san the time to have himself healed.

We had to strike them all at once.

The Thunderbolts didn't like it but that required us to split their forces. Their Zoalady fought accompanied by her usual attendants.

The initial battles went about as well as we could expect.

Some killed their opponents, some didn't and for some victory came with their ultimate defeat.

Balcus-teme was killed by the Aptom clones and suicidal troopers we'd sent after him. I am sure there is a story there, that those who were essentially human could take down a Zoalord, the heroics they must have performed. It is not my story to tell though.

Waferdanos lost to Sho-sama.

Our final Zoalord killed Fried'rich van Purg'stall.

The Rogue Zoalord Luggnagg de Krumeggnik killed Rienzi.

Those were our victories, which all things considered were far better than we had a right to expect. Surprise was on our side and thus many of those who fell were distracted and unprepared. Of course, we didn't win all the initial battles.

But with the above results we were feeling tentatively optimistic. Especially as our losses weren't that bad, all things considered. Not really. Not for a battle where so long as Alkanphel-san died, it would be victory.

Edward Caerleon defeated the Thunderbolts' Zoalady and her escorts.

That was our main loss initially if one does not count the fact that Tuarhan de Galenos and the Rogue Zoalord Jearvill Bun Hiyern killed each other. It was still a loss but he'd taken out his foe which was enough.

At that time, Aptom-san was still searching for Alkanphel-san and Imakarum-san and Gigantic Guyver Three were also locked in combat. We had hoped to find Alkanphel-san fast but that was not to be. Still, for the moment we were keeping reinforcements away from Silha. The fate of the Thunderbolt's Zoalady was not relayed to their leader. If he survived then he would know, if not, there was no point in distracting him.

Our final Zoalord knew his duty. He went after Edward Caerleon.

They were both injured from their initial battles but by now, Chronos knew the end game was here and nothing could be spared. Our man had been chosen from the best warriors. He knew his role and didn't hesitate.

He and Edward went down together.

And it was about then that Aptom-san found Alkanphel-san.

I don't want to think what the two men said to each other. One the created Leader of humanity, one a devil created by that Leader. What ever they said they took to the grave though I can image the heavy irony of the words. Their battle was vicious, swift and almost mind-numbingly destructive.

We in the control room had hoped to use the other troops on the Island to help out but we found we couldn't. Aptom-san took control of who he needed and Alkanphel-san took anyone with a weak will he could dominate. In the end what we were trying to do was keep everyone out of the likely firing zones.

Imakarum-san and the Thunderbolts' Leader were still fighting though both were tiring which allowed us to bring into effect some of the troops had been withdrawn from the Aptom-san Alkanphel-san clash. I don't know how much it helped though. Imakarum-san was getting desperate. I think he could feel through Alkanphel-san the loss of the other Zoalords and he knew then that reinforcements were on the way for our side.

While Chronos still had cards to play, time was running out for them. That was the feeling especially as Sin Rubeo Amniculus was behaving exactly how the Rogues had assured us he would. He sat in Africa and did nothing but defend his borders. I know it was a danger to leave him be, but we couldn't spare the fire power.

Sho-sama was rushing from South America to Silha to help in the battle. Luggnagg de Krumeggnik was as well though he was coming from Asia. Both could travel fast though and both knew that despite their wounds they needed to be on Silha to end it all.

The blip on the radar that closed fast with Krumeggnik was all the warning we had that Chronos still had more cards than we knew.

It was surreal watching it happen. The blip appeared, and it was obvious what it was - a flying Zoanoid. That is what we thought anyway, until it closed with Krumeggnik and the two blips became one.

And it was not one because they were so close that the instruments couldn't detect it.

It was one because Krumeggnik was dead.

We knew it was that because he tried to warn us but nothing intelligible came through. Even if it had, I'm not sure what we could have done.

The blip then turned towards Silha and frantic calls were made to Sho-sama and to our combatants that they had to finish it now before they found out what that blip was. Krumeggnik had been injured, true but nothing should be able to take out even an injured Zoalord in less than ten seconds. Thankfully whatever the blip had done to be able to intercept Krumeggnik so fast it didn't appear to be able to repeat it and thus it was that Sho-sama got to Silha first.

He tried to get into the battle between Aptom-san and Alkanphel-san.

He couldn't.

The two of them were fighting with such power and ferocity that anything extra could not strike with any degree of surety. Not even a Guyver.

Sho-sama tried. I know he did. After all our plan was to kill Alkanphel-san above all others and on Silha there were only two battles – Alkanphel-san versus Aptom-san and Imakarum-san versus the Thunderbolts' Leader. Even without our battle plan, I'm sure Sho-sama would have always chosen to help Aptom-san before Zeus.

Some would say it was fortunate that he couldn't get close to the supreme battle. It was in a way because Sho-sama was witness to the Thunderbolts' Leader's defeat. And in witnessing it, he was able to save the Gigantic Unit.

Imakarum-san was armed with the Remover. That bioweapon that Guyot-teme had worked so hard to obtain. It's surprising he didn't use it earlier in the fight against Zeus but he knew what he was doing and his stratagem worked. When it was revealed, fully charged and ready to fire there was nowhere for the Thunderbolts' Leader to hide and nowhere for him to run as his Unit was stripped away.

Sho-sama was there though and managed to save the Gigantic Unit, calling it to himself instinctively before it was contained by the Remover. One of the few surviving Thunderbolts has suggested that this is what killed their Leader but that is something that will never be proven. Perhaps if the Gigantic had impacted with the Remover the process would have been halted. Perhaps not.

We will never know.

All we do know is that Sho-sama saved the Gigantic but the base armor was ripped away from Zeus and for the first time the Rebels saw his human face.

I'm sure Tetsuro-sama knew who the Thunderbolts' Leader was before that. He hadn't seen fit to reveal that information to the rest of us though, hence the revelation that Zeus was Agito Makishima-san came as a surprise to all of us.

There is a time for shock and there is a time for hatred but the time for any emotion regarding Agito-san was gone. We knew him of course but the years had changed us all and the boy we knew had probably never really existed. There was nothing left to mourn except the passing of a Rebel Leader. I'm sure Agito-san hates that epitaph.

What happened next was born of instinct.

Imakarum-san was no fool. He knew what danger the Guyvers were to Zoalords and thus his first move was to recharge the Remover. He had no choice. His battle with Makishima had depleted him and thus a battle with Gigantic Guyver One would destroy him.

The past is forgotten in instinct. The only thing that matters then is primeval – kill or be killed. I know there was no other choice but that doesn't make it better.

Before the Remover was charged again, Sho-sama struck. The vibroblade split the weapon in two and travelled a goodly distance up Imakarum-san's arm. Not that that was going to be an issue, because Sho-sama had spun to stand almost back to back with the Zoalord, his other set of vibroblades lodged firmly through the Zoalord's chest. It was almost surreal that it happened so fast and there was only one whisper over our frequencies.

"I'm sorry."

To this day I don't know who said it. Sho-sama to the friend he'd killed, or Murakami-san to the comrade he'd forced into this position. Perhaps it was both.

Sho-sama lay the body down carefully before he rose, looking over to the place where Aptom-san had battled Alkanphel-san. I don't know where he found the strength. I was in the control room and I was on my knees, tears streaming down my face but I guess Sho-sama knew what it meant to be a Rebel and no matter what he would see the battle through to the end.

His courage shamed me.

I thought I knew what it was to be a Rebel. The final battles were showing me how much I still had to learn, how much our actual fighters had shielded us still. It never seemed that Aptom-san or Sho-sama shielded us, but what I had just seen only proved how much they had.

I don't really know what happened next. Suffice to say that sometime during Imakarum-san's battle with Sho-sama, Alkanphel-san's experience had proven telling over Aptom-san.

Aptom-san hadn't gone down without a fight but he had gone down, leaving the Supreme Zoalord severely wounded but still alive. Even though most of the Zoalords were gone, if we let Alkanphel-san get away now, it would be over. He'd heal, he'd get stronger, and the Zoanoids were still his to command.

We all knew that and so it was that Sho-sama knew that and attacked the weakened Lord of Chronos.

His attack was intercepted and we found out then that Chronos had one more Joker remaining. The unknown blip on the radar had arrived.

There was a full minute of silence.

Most didn't know who the new Zoalord was.

We, unfortunately, did.

Kenji-kun.

I don't know what went through Sho-sama's mind then, as he stood battle ready across from his brother in all but blood, the blood of the father drying at his elbows.

"Have you come for me, Sho-nii-chan?"

"Nearly, Kenji-kun."

"You promised you would come for me, Sho-nii-chan."

"I always keep my promises, Kenji-kun."

It's such a simple conversation. The words were spoken without emotion and I almost didn't believe it happened, but Tetsuro-sama's shaking form beside me indicated otherwise. Of course by now most of the Rebel commanders who were with us in the Control Room were looking at us both.

The final Chronos Zoalord was not just on a first name basis with one of our members but was calling upon family ties. Because I knew the history, the relationships, I did not see how badly the other Rebels saw this. Tetsuro-sama did though, and he jumped in front of me as the others took the only action they thought made sense. He took the bullets for me, his body shielding mine. For the Rebels, there was only ever one answer for betrayal, after all.

Our little drama though was lost in the whole as Sho-sama made to attack Alkanphel-san.

Kenji-kun took the blow again.

"Sho-nii-chan."

Sho-sama didn't reply but instead drew back slightly. I couldn't see his eyes behind the armor but I think I know how they looked.

Lost.

Dead.

Mine were the same as I tried to staunch the flow of blood from Tetsuro-sama's wounds. I couldn't though and he knew it because he looked up at me and smiled. I think he knew then the decision the man who in a better life should have been his brother-in-law would make. And thus his final words, 'It's better this way,' made absolute, shocking sense.

"Kenji-kun, do you remember your father's wish?" Sho-sama asked softly.

For a moment there was nothing then recognition dawned on Kenji-kun's face. He remembered his father's wish. That much had not been taken from him yet, I could see, and I'm sure Sho-sama could feel that, despite the memory, Kenji-kun could not step away.

It didn't really matter though. Sho-sama had never sought to fight but had for most of his life. He knew how to strike without warning and he knew that, if you were willing to pay the price, some strikes could not be stopped.

He was willing.

Alkanphel-san placed too much faith in the words of a man he'd corrupted and it appeared he'd forgotten that there were others of power who would make the ultimate sacrifice, just as he had millions of years ago.

Sho-sama struck, one blade going through Alkanphel-san's heart while his fist crushed the central crystal at his forehead.

Kenji-kun reacted as he was programmed to. There was no other choice but for him to do that.

None of us expected it. I'm sure Sho-sama did though, and right before his destabilized unit consumed him, he sent the final thought to Kenji-kun.

'As your father wished, there is no Chronos now. As I promised, I have come for you. Live free, Otoutou.'

Kenji-kun had been taken from us young. He had re-appeared to us old but he knew what he had done. He knew who he had killed, and while it was true that he was now free, that freedom meant nothing to him.

His father was dead.

His brother was dead.

His world was gone.

I remember one of the Rebels said our mission to destroy Alkanphel-san had to succeed, even if it cost us all our lives. Killing Alkanphel-san cost us every significant warrior we had. Sho-sama's death cost us everyone else on Silha when Kenji-kun couldn't control his grief. There isn't much left of the island any more.

The battle was over though.

Chronos was dead, yet none of the Rebels felt like celebrating because in the wave of destruction that came with Kenji-kun's grief, there came something else.

Kenji-kun's thoughts.

And it was in that moment that we knew all was lost.

All thrones rest on the fallen and the Throne of the World was won over the blood of millions.

It's meant to be a philosophical statement, one quoted but not often realised, for to realise it would be to know why. The Throne of the World, though, is flanked by two silent sentinels. Two who started the same but in the end were opposite, two who mean much to the one who sits there with his grief.

It should be unstable. Absolute power should not rest there and be alternately torn towards one then the other. It appears though that the two silent sentinals watch more than just our fate.

History never records the things that matter, but as I stand here now in front of the Throne of the World with two dead gazes upon me and his eyes screaming his memories; I dare you to tell me why.

Why are the things we know never the things that matter?

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